


As Far As The Horizon

by centreoftheselights



Series: Rockpool 'Verse [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-War, Beaches, Cold Weather, Domestic, Emotional Support, F/F, Kissing, Newspaper Editor!Luna, Quidditch Player Ginny Weasley, Rockpool, The Quibbler, Trauma, Traumaversary, young adulthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-30
Updated: 2015-10-30
Packaged: 2018-04-28 23:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5108951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/centreoftheselights/pseuds/centreoftheselights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few years after the war, Ginny and Luna have moved on with their lives, but there are some days that they can't forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As Far As The Horizon

When Ginny arrived at the cottage, the door was already ajar. She pushed it open with a creak and made her way to the kitchen.

“I saw you flying over!” Luna's voice drifted down the hall. “I'll be through in a minute!”

The kettle was just coming to the boil. Ginny poured out the tea into the waiting mugs and then threw her coat over the back of her usual chair while it brewed.

“Milk and two sugars,” she muttered to herself.

“Same as I always take it,” Luna acknowledged from the doorway. She walked over and kissed Ginny's cheek before taking her tea to the table.

“Busy day?” Ginny asked as they sat down.

“Isn't it always?” Luna replied with a glint in her eye. “It's just me at the moment. Dennis is staying in Hogsmeade while he interviews the Hogwarts centaurs. Apparently they saw his work with the giants and were quite impressed. They're normally quite reluctant to give interviews.”

Ginny smiled. Dennis's series of articles on the giants who had remained in Britain to seek asylum after the war had been The Quibbler's first internationally-selling story since Luna became editor.

“And Cho had another job offer last week,” Luna continued. “The Daily Prophet wanted her to start a column for those 'Broomstick Beauty' tips she's so good at. But she turned them down – she said she likes the flexibility she gets with The Quibbler. She's gone to London for the day to interview the Supreme Mugwump about the goblin rights issue.”

Ginny didn't think she'd ever get used to the calm, prideless way Luna spoke about her two star reporters, as though the three of them together hadn't transformed The Quibbler from a national laughing stock to one of the most respected news outlets in wizarding Europe while still teenagers. Only a handful of years later, Cho Chang and Dennis Creevey were both household names, and Rita Skeeter was on her way out – a quiet revolution that Ginny very much enjoyed having front-row seats to.

“How are things with the Harpies?” Luna asked.

Ginny launched into a story about the latest drama between the substitute Keeper and one of the Beaters at their last practise of the year, pretending she hadn't noticed that Luna had avoided talking about herself. But then, she wasn't exactly surprised. Not considering what day it was.

They kept chatting until both mugs of tea were empty, and watery shafts of sunlight were slowly breaking through the clouds outside.

“So, what do you want to do today?” Ginny asked.

Luna thought about it for a few moments. “How about the beach?”

 

The beach was nowhere in particular. It was a quiet spot that the two of them had found together a couple of years earlier, a peaceful stretch of coastline where they rarely encountered anyone but the occasional Muggle walking their dog.

On a grey afternoon in the middle of December, there was no-one to be seen between them and the horizon. The sea stretched out before them, grey and choppy with wind, broad waves rolling in to break upon the dark, damp sand. Ginny and Luna walked in comfortable silence as they climbed their way out of the long grass of the dunes and onto the narrow stretch of beach.

The cold breeze stang at Ginny's cheeks, and whipped the sand at her feet into dancing ripples as it tossed about the loose grains. She didn't complain though – she had flown in worse conditions, and she was more worried about Luna.

“What do you want to do?” she asked.

Luna thought for a moment.

“You could kiss me,” she said, but something in her voice sounded hesitant.

“Are you sure?” Ginny asked. She was always careful about that sort of thing, which some of her previous partners had found strange. But Luna was happy to be the one to suggest things, and Ginny trusted her not to understand why it was so important to her to always ask first.

Luna considered it. “Actually, no. I'm sorry.”

“You don't have to apologise.” Luna knew that, but today she might appreciate being told.

It was always hard to know what to say on the anniversary, and words had never really been Ginny's strongest suit, especially around Luna. But the date of the last day they had seen each other before the longest separation of their friendship – the day that Luna had been captured by Death Eaters – seemed like a day to say the things which usually went unspoken.

At the very least, it was a day to spend together – and they always had, ever since the first time Ginny had found herself at Luna's door, only months after Voldemort's defeat when she was still struggling to learn who she was without a war. She hadn't even recalled the date until the morning it happened, but as soon as she woke up she had known where she needed to be. And every year since, she had come.

But those years hadn't made Luna any easier to understand, and so Ginny didn't expect it when Luna turned to her with a smile and said: “Race you to the rockpools!”

And just like that they were two young women not quite all the way grown up yet, sprinting along the shoreline with their thick winter coats flapping around their ankles.

Luna had a head-start, and she used it to her advantage, but she didn't have Ginny's training or endurance. Ginny whooped as she passed her friend, and got in enough of a lead to turn around just before the rock pools and walk the last few steps backwards, just to taunt Luna – who, in revenge, barrelled into her at full pelt, nearly knocking them both over onto the rocks.

“Shit!” Ginny gasped from the impact, but she was laughing before she'd caught her breath.

“You deserved that,” Luna said, laughing in between gasps. “You enjoy running more than anyone should.”

“It's the next best thing to flying,” Ginny explained. “And besides, I like to win.”

Luna laughed again, but she'd caught her breath already.

“Really?” she teased. “I'd never have guessed.”

Ginny made a face, and the two of them fell into step, wondering through the cluster of rough black rocks that jutted out from the sand.

“This beach is nearly as good as flying,” Ginny commented. “It's so empty, everything is so far away and tiny… if no-one else is here, it's like this whole beach is ours. Makes me feel like a giant.”

“Really?” Luna asked. “It makes me feel small.”

“How so?”

Luna pulled her over next to one of the larger pools, big enough to have caught some of the seaweed brought in by the last tide. The two of them leant on the edge of the damp rock, careful not to let their shadows fall on the water.

“What -?” Ginny started to ask, but Luna hushed her and gestured for her to watch.

They watched for a couple of minutes before anything happened. Then, all of a sudden, a creamy-brown fish darted out from under the seaweed, and began swimming around the pool.

“This is why the beach makes me feel small,” Luna said, so quiet Ginny could only just hear her over the wind. “Because even when I'm full of sadness, or anger, or pain – even when I feel like the seas should boil and the sky turn red – on the days when I feel like my whole world is ending, I can come here, and this little fish will still be here. He doesn't know any more about my world than I know about his, and no matter how much pain I feel, it will never be enough to hurt him. We're just two small worlds that don't ever touch...”

She trailed her fingers across the top of the pool, sending the fish darting for cover again.

“Unless I choose to let them.”

Ginny took her hand, ignoring the cold water that dripped from Luna's fingertips. Both their hands were shaking.

“I'm here,” Ginny said, not sure how to put what she was feeling into words. “I'm not going to leave. I can take care of myself – of both of us. Not that you need taking care of, but, if you ever wanted it...”

She swallowed, hard, and squeezed Luna's hand.

“Just for a while, just for today – how about we put your small world inside my big one, and we can watch each other's backs?”

Luna smiled, and wrapped her arms around Ginny, hugging her close. Ginny held her tight and pressed her forehead against Luna's, ignoring the windswept hairs which tangled between them.

“I'm going to kiss you now,” Luna said quietly.

Ginny smiled. “Are you s-?”

Ginny wasn't even finished asking when Luna's hand tangled in her hair and pulled her in for a kiss, a press of warm lips and cold noses, gentle in the way that only Luna could be but still fiercer than she ever let herself be around anyone else. They kissed again, and again, gasping for air in between, and for a moment the world narrowed to just the two of them, clutching each other tight and murmuring in clouds of steam-warm breath: _I'm here, you're safe, you survived, we're here, we survived_.


End file.
